An Iranian high rank official said Tehran’s combating on drugs trafficking is “an instance of respecting human rights”.

“The amount of narcotic drugs discovered only in Iran is as much as discovered in the rest of the world. We are neighbor to the world’s biggest narcotics producer,” Deputy Secretary General of High Council for Human Rights and Judicial Cooperation Kazem Gharib-Abadi said on Wednesday.

He added, “Although Iran can leave the way open for the drugs to enter Europe, it never does so, in as much as Europeans’ lives are also important for us. We lose our youths fighting against narcotics, and won’t let the drugs be transited through Iran. That’s an example of respecting human rights.”

He also said that 90% of the instances of capital punishment in Iran are drug traffickers, and the part of them are due to the law of retaliation, which is personal right and the government cannot stop it; but the western countries see both cases the same, he said.

Gharib-Abadi said that 4,000 Iranians lose their lives in the fight against drugs trafficking, transiting, and distributing each year, and many families are badly hurt by these losses.